Venom Vol 4 12
(Story) (Title) | Editor-in-Chief = C.B. Cebulski | CoverArtist1 = Ryan Stegman | CoverArtist2 = Frank Martin Jr. | Production1_1 = Anthony Gambino | Production1_2 = Alan Fine | CCO = Joe Quesada | President1_1 = Dan Buckley | Quotation = Trying... to... be... better... both... of... you... better... without... me... | Speaker = Venom | StoryTitle1 = | Writer1_1 = Donny Cates | Penciler1_1 = Joshua Cassara | Inker1_1 = Joshua Cassara | Colourist1_1 = Rain Beredo | Letterer1_1 = Clayton Cowles | Editor1_1 = Devin Lewis | Editor1_2 = Lauren Amaro | Editor1_3 = Danny Khazem | Editor1_4 = Nick Lowe | Appearing1 = Featured Characters: * Supporting Characters: * * ** ** Unnamed agents * Antagonists: * Other Characters: * * * * Races and Species: * Category:Human-Klyntar Hybrids/Appearances * * Locations: * ** *** **** ***** ****** 714 Jenkins Avenue (Carl Brock's house) ***** ****** ***** **** **** *** **** ***** ****** Abandoned fallout shelter * * | Synopsis1 = One stormy night many years ago, Anne Weying turned up on the doorstep of Carl Brock's house in San Francisco, bedraggled, traumatized, and holding a baby boy. When a confused and concerned Carl asks what happened, she explains that Eddie had transferred the Venom symbiote to her in order to save her life -- transforming her into the monstrous She-Venom -- and for a moment they were simultaneously bonded to it, connected mentally and physically to each other. After the symbiote returned to Eddie, Anne found she was suddenly and mysteriously pregnant, and gave birth to the boy in her arms, whom she named Dylan. Telling Carl she can't properly care for her son -- having been traumatized by the experience -- she begs him to look after Dylan. When Carl protests, Anne says they both know that Eddie is a monster and can never know he has a son, and that Carl is the only family she has left at this point. Carl takes the baby, and Anne runs off into the rain promising she'll return for Dylan once she's recovered from her psychological trauma, though she never does and ultimately takes her own life. In the present, the Maker expresses concern that Eddie won't survive being forcibly separated from the Venom symbiote. Encased in a web of sonic energy, Eddie tells him to turn it up and mentally berates the symbiote for having manipulated him, given him cancer, and betrayed his trust. The Maker complies and separates the symbiote from Eddie, dodging as the symbiote breaks free of the sonic web and smashes his machine, which promptly explodes. Crossing the Golden Gate Bridge in his car, Carl Brock scolds Dylan for running away and apologizes for hurting him when he lost his temper, warning his grandson that Eddie isn't a good person. Dylan snaps that at least Eddie recognizes that fact and is honest about it, unlike Carl, who is enraged by that insult and moves to slap Dylan for his insolence. The car jolts suddenly, slamming Carl's face into the steering wheel, and he looks into the rear view mirror to see that Venom -- seemingly recovered and restored -- has grabbed onto the back end of the car and is lifting it off the ground. Carl exits the vehicle and confronts Venom, threatening to call the police, but is grabbed by the throat and lifted off the ground. Thinking he's about to be eaten, Carl begs for mercy and promises not to hurt Dylan anymore, but Venom wordlessly glares at him before sticking tendrils into Carl's mouth and eyes, the latter of which turn black with white spirals as the symbiote interfaces with his mind. Carl finds himself in a police interrogation room, handcuffed to a table, and demands for someone to let him go. "Eddie Brock" steps out of the shadows and says no-one's coming, and that it's just them. "Eddie" asks Carl if he remembers this room, where he'd once beaten him for wanting to plead guilty for killing an innocent child; though Carl refuses to admit his role in shaping Eddie becoming a monster, saying Eddie's choices were his own. Partially transforming into Venom, "Eddie" smashes the table and grabs Carl, slamming him into the wall and snarling that he doesn't get to judge him. His eyes solid black and teeth turned into fangs, "Eddie" snarls that he knows he's a monster but that at least he's trying to be a better person, which is why he's talking to Carl instead of eating his brains. Retracting the symbiote, "Eddie" states that he knows that Dylan is his son and refuses to let Carl hurt him any longer; though Carl scoffs, saying that it's about time and that Dylan is just like his father. "Eddie" protests that Dylan's not a bad person yet, though Carl states that's not what he meant; rather, Dylan is like how Eddie was as a child, finally admitting that Eddie had been a good kid before the accident. Carl asks if Eddie still believes in God, with "Eddie" bitterly retorting that he met his god and hated him. "Eddie" tells Carl that he didn't come to make amends or ask for forgiveness, saying that he's taking Dylan and that if Carl tries to stop him or come after them, he's dead. Carl says he understands, so "Eddie" -- his eyes black with white spirals for pupils -- breaks their mental connection. Carl regains consciousness on the side of the road in the Mojave Desert, far from San Francisco, and begins limping his way back towards civilization while sobbing apologies. Dylan wakes up to find Venom, sans his trademark mouth full of fangs, carrying him into the hospital, the corridor in ruins and littered with the bodies of Project Oversight agents. Noting that Venom is unusually silent, Dylan asks what "Eddie" is doing as the symbiotic antihero gently sets him down and walks away. When Dylan asks if he is abandoning him, Venom pauses and looks over his shoulder, hesitantly saying that he's trying to be better but that both of them will be better without him. Dylan is confused until he hears a groan coming from the wreckage of the room where the Maker had been operating on Eddie, and enters to see a nearly naked Eddie just regaining consciousness, realizing that it had been the hostless symbiote all along. Eddie groggily asks Dylan what happened, saying that he was going to rescue him before the symbiote escaped, glancing up to where the unconscious Maker is cocooned to the ceiling by black webbing. As they hug, Dylan tells Eddie that the symbiote rescued him before leaving, wondering where it's gone off to. Elsewhere in Chinatown, the Venom symbiote -- using its ability to temporarily take on a humanoid form without a host -- disguises itself as a man and vanishes into a crowd. | Solicit = • Once the worst nightmare of New York’s criminal element, Eddie Brock has been living a nightmare of his own, cut off from the symbiote’s personality and now dealing with the resurgence of the cancer that once ravaged his body. • With no one else to turn to, Eddie must revisit THE MAKER — the only person who’s been able to provide ANY insight into what’s been going on with the alien symbiote of late... | Notes = | Trivia = | Recommended = | Links = }} Category:Digital Comic Code included